Choose a topic for your paper and type it here:
Holden is insane and society is sane but at the same time Holden is sane and society is insane.
(5 points)
February 4 — thesis due
Your thesis tells your readers what point you will be making and defending about the novel.
For a guide to writing your thesis (and some examples) click here. Write your thesis here: Holden Caulifield, in the novel The Catcher and the Rye by: J.D. Salinger, is a smart young man who is inbetween sanity and insanity and goes against society. He thinks differently about childrens innocence, phonynies, and sex which makes him in between sanity and insanity.
(5 points)
February 5 — identify three main body topics
Your three main body topics are the main topics you will use to defend your thesis.
You should use at least three different subtopics (main bodies) to defend your thesis in the paper.
Many students use 4, 5, or even more main body topics to organize their papers.
THREE IS JUST A MINIMUM.
Please enter (at least) three main body topics here:
(5 points)
1)Sex
2)What is phoniness and what isn't
3)Saving kids innocence
February 6 — introductory paragraph due
Your intro paragrpah tells your readers the thesis of your paper, and briefly outlines the main body paragraph topics you will use to prove and defend your thesis. Type (or link to) your Introductory Paragraph here: Who is Holden? A teenaged boy who is just crazy or is he a boy just trying to have fun? Some of Holden’s ideas and actions make him seem insane to most people in society but to some people his ideas and actions make him sane. Some of his ideas are just crazy but some of them could help society in many ways. They could help corruption end in the future of the children. Holden Caulfield, in the novel The Catcher and the Rye by: J.D. Salinger, is a smart young man who is in-between sanity and insanity and goes against society, which is why people think he is insane. He thinks differently then society about children’s innocence, what is phoniness and what isn't phony, and sex which makes him insane but sane at the same time.
(10 points)
February 7 — critical articles (secondary sources) due
You need at least three secondary sources (essays or articles about the novel written by professional critics) from which you will quote the words of the author/critic to help defend your thesis. List the titles and authors of your three secondary sources here:
(5 points)
1) Overview of The Catcher in the Rye by: Robert Bennett.
2) The Fallen Idol: The Immature World of Holden Caulfield by: Peter J. Seng
3) J. D. Salinger by: James E. Miller, Jr.
NOTE: It is a good idea to find more than three articles in case you change your mind about using one of them. Remember, your final paper must have a total of 8-15 quotes from these secondary sources to help you make your point and defend your thesis. These eight quotes must come from at least three different secondary sources.
February 8 — secondary source quotes
Using each of your three articles at least once, select at least 8 details or quotes from your articles to defend thesis.
YOU MUST LIST THE QUOTE, THE SOURCE OF THE QUOTE, AND THE MAIN BODY TOPIC OF YOUR PAPER WHERE YOU WILL USE THE QUOTE. List at least eight quotes from secondary sources here:
(5 points)
1) QUOTE: "Sensitive and perceptive as Holden is, he is still an adolescent and so an immature judge of adult life."
TITLE & PAGE: The Fallen Idol: The Immature World of Holden Caulfield
AUTHOR: Peter J. Seng
SUBTOPIC:
2) QUOTE: "Holden's chief fault is his failure "to connect" (to use Forster's phrase); he hates lies, phoniness, pretense, yet these are often his own sins."
TITLE & PAGE: The Fallen Idol: The Immature World of Holden Caulfield
AUTHOR: Peter J. Seng
SUBTOPIC:
3) QUOTE: "He is enraged at the thought that Stradlater may have "made time" with Jane Gallagher. His rage springs partly from the fact that he regards Jane as his own property, partly from his suspicion that Stradlater is a heel; yet there are further implications in this episode that he most deeply resents Stradlater's apparent self-possession in an area where he himself is ill-at-ease."
TITLE & PAGE: The Fallen Idol: The Immature World of Holden Caulfield
AUTHOR: Peter J. Seng
SUBTOPIC: Sex
4) QUOTE: ""Sex is something I really don't understand too hot. You never know where the hell you are. I keep making up these sex rules for myself, and then I break them right away. Last year I made a rule that I was going to quit horsing around with girls that, deep down, gave me a pain in the ass. I broke it, though, the same week I made it....Sex is something I just don't understand."" (found in article but comes from the book)
TITLE & PAGE: The Fallen Idol: The Immature World of Holden Caulfield
AUTHOR: Peter J. Seng
SUBTOPIC: sex
5) QUOTE: "What disturbs Holden about the world in which he finds himself is adults and adult values. He sees that the world belongs to adults, and it seems to him that they have filled it with phoniness, pretense, social compromise. He would prefer a world that is honest, sincere, simple."
TITLE & PAGE: The Fallen Idol: The Immature World of Holden Caulfield
AUTHOR: Peter J. Seng
SUBTOPIC: phoniness
6) QUOTE: "The world he wants is a world of children or children-surrogates like the nuns. He would people it with little girls whose skates need tightening, little girls like his adored sister Phoebe; with little boys like the ones at the Museum of Natural History, filled with exquisite terror at the prospect of seeing the mummies. It would include small boys with poems on their baseball gloves like his brother Allie who died some years ago from leukemia and so has been arrested in permanent youth by death. The chief citizens of Holden's world would be the little boys who walk along the curbstone and sing."
TITLE & PAGE: The Fallen Idol: The Immature World of Holden Caulfield
AUTHOR: Peter J. Seng
SUBTOPIC:children's innocence
7) QUOTE: "his quest is a quest to preserve an innocence that is in peril of vanishing—the innocence of childhood, the spotless innocence of a self horrified at contamination in the ordinary and inevitable involvements of life. In another sense, the quest is a quest for an ideal but un-human love that will meet all demands but make none; a relationship so sensitively attuned that all means of communication, however subtle, will remain alertly open, and all the messages, in whatever language, will get through."
TITLE & PAGE: J. D. Salinger
AUTHOR: James E. Miller, Jr.
SUBTOPIC: children's innocence and sex
8) QUOTE: "He wants to be good. When the title children are playing in the rye-field on the clifftop, Holden wants to be the one who catches them before they fall off the cliff."
TITLE & PAGE: J. D. Salinger: Some Crazy Cliff
AUTHOR: Arthur Heiserman
SUBTOPIC: children's innocence
(Feel free to add additional quotes here, using the same format as above)
February 11 — primary source quotes
Please select at least 10 details from the novel to defend thesis Feb 11 List them here:
(5 points)
1) QUOTE:"Sex is something I really don't understand too hot. You never know where the hell you are. I keep making up these sex rules for myself, and then I break them right away. Last year I made a rule that I was going to quit horsing around with girls that, deep down, gave me a pain in the ass. I broke it, though, the same week I made it....Sex is something I just don't understand."
PAGE NUMBER:
SUBTOPIC:Sex
2) QUOTE:
PAGE NUMBER:
SUBTOPIC:
3) QUOTE:
PAGE NUMBER:
SUBTOPIC:
4) QUOTE:
PAGE NUMBER:
SUBTOPIC:
5) QUOTE:
PAGE NUMBER:
SUBTOPIC:
6) QUOTE:
PAGE NUMBER:
SUBTOPIC:
7) QUOTE:
PAGE NUMBER:
SUBTOPIC:
8) QUOTE:
PAGE NUMBER:
SUBTOPIC:
9) QUOTE:
PAGE NUMBER:
SUBTOPIC:
10) QUOTE:
PAGE NUMBER:
SUBTOPIC:
(Feel free to add additional quotes here, using the same format as above)
February 12 — outline your main body
Please arrange your 10 primary source quotes and your 8 secondary source quotes into an outline of the body of your critical paper.
In other words, list the quotes in the order you will use them under each main body topic.
If you use a word document to do this, this could become the framework for your actual paper (because you could type your own writing in between the quotes after you've arranged them in order in this outline, thus creating a draft of your actual paper).
I.Saving Kids Innocence
"The world he wants is a world of children or children-surrogates like the nuns. He would people it with little girls whose skates need tightening, little girls like his adored sister Phoebe; with little boys like the ones at the Museum of Natural History, filled with exquisite terror at the prospect of seeing the mummies. It would include small boys with poems on their baseball gloves like his brother Allie who died some years ago from leukemia and so has been arrested in permanent youth by death. The chief citizens of Holden's world would be the little boys who walk along the curbstone and sing."
"his quest is a quest to preserve an innocence that is in peril of vanishing—the innocence of childhood, the spotless innocence of a self horrified at contamination in the ordinary and inevitable involvements of life. In another sense, the quest is a quest for an ideal but un-human love that will meet all demands but make none; a relationship so sensitively attuned that all means of communication, however subtle, will remain alertly open, and all the messages, in whatever language, will get through."
II.Sex
""Sex is something I really don't understand too hot. You never know where the hell you are. I keep making up these sex rules for myself, and then I break them right away. Last year I made a rule that I was going to quit horsing around with girls that, deep down, gave me a pain in the ass. I broke it, though, the same week I made it....Sex is something I just don't understand."" (found in article but comes from the book)
"He is enraged at the thought that Stradlater may have "made time" with Jane Gallagher. His rage springs partly from the fact that he regards Jane as his own property, partly from his suspicion that Stradlater is a heel; yet there are further implications in this episode that he most deeply resents Stradlater's apparent self-possession in an area where he himself is ill-at-ease."
III. Phoniness
"What disturbs Holden about the world in which he finds himself is adults and adult values. He sees that the world belongs to adults, and it seems to him that they have filled it with phoniness, pretense, social compromise. He would prefer a world that is honest, sincere, simple."
Please post (or link to) a word document containing the outline of your main body (everything but your intro and conclusion) here:
(5 points)
February 13 — first draft of main body
Write a draft of the body of your paper for peer review.
Natasha Valor
English 10
Mrs. Jacobson
March 5, 2008
Holden the Catcher
Who is Holden? A teenaged boy who is just crazy or is he a boy just trying to have fun? Some of Holden’s ideas and actions make him seem insane to most people in society but to some people his ideas and actions make him sane. Some of his ideas are just crazy but some of them could help society in many ways. They could help corruption end in the future of the children. Holden Caulfield, in the novel The Catcher and the Rye by: J.D. Salinger, is a smart young man who is in-between sanity and insanity and goes against society, which is why people think he is insane. He thinks differently then society about children’s innocence, what is phoniness and what isn't phony, and sex, which makes him, insane but sane at the same time.
The first thing that Holden cares a lot about is phoniness. He thinks almost everyone is phony. Even through he thinks almost everyone is phony he is one of the phoniest people out of all of them. Even Peter J. Seng agrees with this statement, "What disturbs Holden about the world in which he finds himself are adults and adult values. He sees that the world belongs to adults, and it seems to him that they have filled it with phoniness, pretense, and social compromise. He would prefer a world that is honest, sincere, and simple." (Page 204) The reason he has no real friends is because he thinks they are all phony. Basically Holden thinks all teenagers and adults are phony. The only people that he sees as a pure non-phony person are children. Since children are the only ones he sees as not being phony, he wants to protect their innocence.
Children’s innocence is the second thing that Holden cares about. To him there is nothing more important than the innocence of a child. Holden wants a certain world that only kids live in. Peter J. Seng defines Holden’s dream, "The world he wants is a world of children or children-surrogates like the nuns. He would people it with little girls whose skates need tightening, little girls like his adored sister Phoebe; with little boys like the ones at the Museum of Natural History, filled with exquisite terror at the prospect of seeing the mummies. It would include small boys with poems on their baseball gloves like his brother Allie who died some years ago from leukemia and so has been arrested in permanent youth by death. The chief citizens of Holden's world would be the little boys who walk along the curbstone and sing." (Page 204) The world Holden sees is not a bad one. Most adults in society would think it was an insane thought, a world of children. But Holden’s dream is not insane at all. If the world lived pure lives like children we wouldn’t have as much problems in the world. There would be no wars, starvation, murders and many other things. When Holden thinks about what job he would like to do in the future. He sees himself being the “Catcher in the Rye”. James E. Miller, Jr. says, "His quest is a quest to preserve an innocence that is in peril of vanishing—the innocence of childhood, the spotless innocence of a self horrified at contamination in the ordinary and inevitable involvements of life. In another sense, the quest is a quest for an ideal but un-human love that will meet all demands but make none; a relationship so sensitively attuned that all means of communication, however subtle, will remain alertly open, and all the messages, in whatever language, will get through." (Page 6) The job "Catcher in the Rye" that Holden sees himself doing can be seen in many different ways. "He wants to be good. When the title children are playing in the rye-field on the cliff top, Holden wants to be the one who catches them before they fall off the cliff."(Page 129) This is what Arthur Heiserman thinks about Holden’s dream job. But, to me it is that Holden sees himself as the person who saves children’s innocence and saving them from going into the corrupt world of adults. He loves children and wants to be a child again that is another reason he wants to protect their innocence.
The third and final thing that Holden cares and thinks about is sex. Holden doesn’t think of sex the same way most people do. He sees it as a spiritual and physical experience just like Luce's girlfriend thinks it is. He doesn’t feel right about doing it with just anyone. He feels that if he does have sex it should be with someone he truly cares about. When Holden thinks that Stradlater might have done it with Jane Gallagher he gets angry. Peter J. Seng explains further, "He is enraged at the thought that Stradlater may have "made time" with Jane Gallagher. His rage springs partly from the fact that he regards Jane as his own property, partly from his suspicion that Stradlater is a heel; yet there are further implications in this episode that he most deeply resents Stradlater's apparent self-possession in an area where he himself is ill-at-ease."(Page 204) It is Jane's own choice to be with Stradlater and Holden can be angry about it but he shouldn't act like Jane is his own property. People think differently about sex than Holden and he can't change that. He has his own beliefs and should keep them. Holden says himself that he thinks sex differently than most. "Sex is something I really don't understand too hot. You never know where the hell you are. I keep making up these sex rules for myself, and then I break them right away. Last year I made a rule that I was going to quit horsing around with girls that, deep down, gave me a pain in the ass. I broke it, though; the same week I made it.... Sex is something I just don't understand." (Catcher In the Rye By: J. D. Salinger) Holden might think sex differently but the way he thinks about it fine. Most people (men mostly some women) would look at Holden as if he had two heads. But it is a great to think of it this way. If the world saw sex this way life would be a little bit easier. Teenagers wouldn't be pressured into doing it and women's life would be easier to live.
Holden's sanity is on a thin line between being insane and being sane. “He hates lies, phoniness, pretense, yet these are often his own sins." (Seng page 203) His ideas are great but completely out there. Some are just plain stupid and wouldn’t help anyone. He might daydream about things but everyone does that it is part of being creative. People can think Holden is insane but he truly isn’t completely. Holden will always be a different kind of teenage boy.
(10 points)
February 14 — peer review
List the names of at least three of your classmates whose first drafts you read and commented upon:
(5 points)
1) Ellen Kuhl
2) Joy Mayfield
3) Theresa Tran
February 25 — final rough draft
Submit a paper copy of your final draft of the body to the teacher.
(20 points)
February 26 — rough draft of conclusion paragraph
Holden's sanity is on a thin line between being insane and being sane.
Please type (or link to) the rough draft of your conclusion paragraph here:
(5 points)
February 27 — final draft of conclusion paragraph
Revise your conclusion paragraph and present a copy to your teacher today. Also, please type (or link to) the rough draft of your conclusion paragraph here:
(10 points)
February 28 — Works Cited Page due
Work Cited Heiserman, Arthur, and James E. Miller, Jr. "J. D. Salinger: Some Crazy Cliff." EXPLORING Novels. Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resource Center - Bronze. Gale. North Penn High School. 28 Feb. 2008 <http://find.galegroup.com Miller, James E., Jr. "J. D. Salinger." EXPLORING Novels. Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resource Center - Bronze. Gale. North Penn High School. 28 Feb. 2008 <http://find.galegroup.com Seng, Peter J. "The Fallen Idol: The Immature World of Holden Caulfield." EXPLORING Novels. Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resource Center - Bronze. Gale. North Penn High School. 28 Feb. 2008 <http://find.galegroup.com
Turn in a paper copy of your works cited page to your teacher today! Link to the Word document of your works cited page here:
(20 points)
March 5 — CRITICAL PAPER DUE!!!
Turn in the final draft of critical paper TODAY, including:
a) note cards
b) outline of body
c) all rough drafts
d) completed checklist, signed
e) final draft of paper, typed, double spaced (5-7 pgs.)
f) final works cited / references page
(100 points)
March 9 — TURN IT IN (dot com)
Today is the final day for MANDATORY submission of your final critical paper to www.turnitin.com
FAILURE TO SUBMIT YOUR PAPER TO TURNITIN.COM WILL RESULT IN A ZERO ON YOUR PAPER!
Hooray!! You're done!
Now let's have some fun making our Julius Caesar movie!
Tasha Valor's Critical Paper
Back to Critical Papers HomeJanuary 29 — folder and parent signature due
January 30 — note cards due
January 31 — select a topic
View a list of potential paper topics:Choose a topic for your paper and type it here:
Holden is insane and society is sane but at the same time Holden is sane and society is insane.
(5 points)
February 4 — thesis due
Your thesis tells your readers what point you will be making and defending about the novel.
For a guide to writing your thesis (and some examples) click here.
Write your thesis here: Holden Caulifield, in the novel The Catcher and the Rye by: J.D. Salinger, is a smart young man who is inbetween sanity and insanity and goes against society. He thinks differently about childrens innocence, phonynies, and sex which makes him in between sanity and insanity.
(5 points)
February 5 — identify three main body topics
Your three main body topics are the main topics you will use to defend your thesis.You should use at least three different subtopics (main bodies) to defend your thesis in the paper.
Many students use 4, 5, or even more main body topics to organize their papers.
THREE IS JUST A MINIMUM.
Please enter (at least) three main body topics here:
(5 points)
1)Sex
2)What is phoniness and what isn't
3)Saving kids innocence
February 6 — introductory paragraph due
Your intro paragrpah tells your readers the thesis of your paper, and briefly outlines the main body paragraph topics you will use to prove and defend your thesis.
Type (or link to) your Introductory Paragraph here:
Who is Holden? A teenaged boy who is just crazy or is he a boy just trying to have fun? Some of Holden’s ideas and actions make him seem insane to most people in society but to some people his ideas and actions make him sane. Some of his ideas are just crazy but some of them could help society in many ways. They could help corruption end in the future of the children. Holden Caulfield, in the novel The Catcher and the Rye by: J.D. Salinger, is a smart young man who is in-between sanity and insanity and goes against society, which is why people think he is insane. He thinks differently then society about children’s innocence, what is phoniness and what isn't phony, and sex which makes him insane but sane at the same time.
(10 points)
February 7 — critical articles (secondary sources) due
You need at least three secondary sources (essays or articles about the novel written by professional critics) from which you will quote the words of the author/critic to help defend your thesis.
List the titles and authors of your three secondary sources here:
(5 points)
1) Overview of The Catcher in the Rye by: Robert Bennett.
2) The Fallen Idol: The Immature World of Holden Caulfield by: Peter J. Seng
3) J. D. Salinger by: James E. Miller, Jr.
NOTE: It is a good idea to find more than three articles in case you change your mind about using one of them. Remember, your final paper must have a total of 8-15 quotes from these secondary sources to help you make your point and defend your thesis. These eight quotes must come from at least three different secondary sources.
February 8 — secondary source quotes
Using each of your three articles at least once, select at least 8 details or quotes from your articles to defend thesis.
YOU MUST LIST THE QUOTE, THE SOURCE OF THE QUOTE, AND THE MAIN BODY TOPIC OF YOUR PAPER WHERE YOU WILL USE THE QUOTE.
List at least eight quotes from secondary sources here:
(5 points)
1) QUOTE: "Sensitive and perceptive as Holden is, he is still an adolescent and so an immature judge of adult life."
TITLE & PAGE: The Fallen Idol: The Immature World of Holden Caulfield
AUTHOR: Peter J. Seng
SUBTOPIC:
2) QUOTE: "Holden's chief fault is his failure "to connect" (to use Forster's phrase); he hates lies, phoniness, pretense, yet these are often his own sins."
TITLE & PAGE: The Fallen Idol: The Immature World of Holden Caulfield
AUTHOR: Peter J. Seng
SUBTOPIC:
3) QUOTE: "He is enraged at the thought that Stradlater may have "made time" with Jane Gallagher. His rage springs partly from the fact that he regards Jane as his own property, partly from his suspicion that Stradlater is a heel; yet there are further implications in this episode that he most deeply resents Stradlater's apparent self-possession in an area where he himself is ill-at-ease."
TITLE & PAGE: The Fallen Idol: The Immature World of Holden Caulfield
AUTHOR: Peter J. Seng
SUBTOPIC: Sex
4) QUOTE: ""Sex is something I really don't understand too hot. You never know where the hell you are. I keep making up these sex rules for myself, and then I break them right away. Last year I made a rule that I was going to quit horsing around with girls that, deep down, gave me a pain in the ass. I broke it, though, the same week I made it....Sex is something I just don't understand."" (found in article but comes from the book)
TITLE & PAGE: The Fallen Idol: The Immature World of Holden Caulfield
AUTHOR: Peter J. Seng
SUBTOPIC: sex
5) QUOTE: "What disturbs Holden about the world in which he finds himself is adults and adult values. He sees that the world belongs to adults, and it seems to him that they have filled it with phoniness, pretense, social compromise. He would prefer a world that is honest, sincere, simple."
TITLE & PAGE: The Fallen Idol: The Immature World of Holden Caulfield
AUTHOR: Peter J. Seng
SUBTOPIC: phoniness
6) QUOTE: "The world he wants is a world of children or children-surrogates like the nuns. He would people it with little girls whose skates need tightening, little girls like his adored sister Phoebe; with little boys like the ones at the Museum of Natural History, filled with exquisite terror at the prospect of seeing the mummies. It would include small boys with poems on their baseball gloves like his brother Allie who died some years ago from leukemia and so has been arrested in permanent youth by death. The chief citizens of Holden's world would be the little boys who walk along the curbstone and sing."
TITLE & PAGE: The Fallen Idol: The Immature World of Holden Caulfield
AUTHOR: Peter J. Seng
SUBTOPIC:children's innocence
7) QUOTE: "his quest is a quest to preserve an innocence that is in peril of vanishing—the innocence of childhood, the spotless innocence of a self horrified at contamination in the ordinary and inevitable involvements of life. In another sense, the quest is a quest for an ideal but un-human love that will meet all demands but make none; a relationship so sensitively attuned that all means of communication, however subtle, will remain alertly open, and all the messages, in whatever language, will get through."
TITLE & PAGE: J. D. Salinger
AUTHOR: James E. Miller, Jr.
SUBTOPIC: children's innocence and sex
8) QUOTE: "He wants to be good. When the title children are playing in the rye-field on the clifftop, Holden wants to be the one who catches them before they fall off the cliff."
TITLE & PAGE: J. D. Salinger: Some Crazy Cliff
AUTHOR: Arthur Heiserman
SUBTOPIC: children's innocence
(Feel free to add additional quotes here, using the same format as above)
February 11 — primary source quotes
Please select at least 10 details from the novel to defend thesis Feb 11
List them here:
(5 points)
1) QUOTE:"Sex is something I really don't understand too hot. You never know where the hell you are. I keep making up these sex rules for myself, and then I break them right away. Last year I made a rule that I was going to quit horsing around with girls that, deep down, gave me a pain in the ass. I broke it, though, the same week I made it....Sex is something I just don't understand."
PAGE NUMBER:
SUBTOPIC:Sex
2) QUOTE:
PAGE NUMBER:
SUBTOPIC:
3) QUOTE:
PAGE NUMBER:
SUBTOPIC:
4) QUOTE:
PAGE NUMBER:
SUBTOPIC:
5) QUOTE:
PAGE NUMBER:
SUBTOPIC:
6) QUOTE:
PAGE NUMBER:
SUBTOPIC:
7) QUOTE:
PAGE NUMBER:
SUBTOPIC:
8) QUOTE:
PAGE NUMBER:
SUBTOPIC:
9) QUOTE:
PAGE NUMBER:
SUBTOPIC:
10) QUOTE:
PAGE NUMBER:
SUBTOPIC:
(Feel free to add additional quotes here, using the same format as above)
February 12 — outline your main body
Please arrange your 10 primary source quotes and your 8 secondary source quotes into an outline of the body of your critical paper.In other words, list the quotes in the order you will use them under each main body topic.
If you use a word document to do this, this could become the framework for your actual paper (because you could type your own writing in between the quotes after you've arranged them in order in this outline, thus creating a draft of your actual paper).
I.Saving Kids Innocence
- "The world he wants is a world of children or children-surrogates like the nuns. He would people it with little girls whose skates need tightening, little girls like his adored sister Phoebe; with little boys like the ones at the Museum of Natural History, filled with exquisite terror at the prospect of seeing the mummies. It would include small boys with poems on their baseball gloves like his brother Allie who died some years ago from leukemia and so has been arrested in permanent youth by death. The chief citizens of Holden's world would be the little boys who walk along the curbstone and sing."
- "his quest is a quest to preserve an innocence that is in peril of vanishing—the innocence of childhood, the spotless innocence of a self horrified at contamination in the ordinary and inevitable involvements of life. In another sense, the quest is a quest for an ideal but un-human love that will meet all demands but make none; a relationship so sensitively attuned that all means of communication, however subtle, will remain alertly open, and all the messages, in whatever language, will get through."
II.Sex- ""Sex is something I really don't understand too hot. You never know where the hell you are. I keep making up these sex rules for myself, and then I break them right away. Last year I made a rule that I was going to quit horsing around with girls that, deep down, gave me a pain in the ass. I broke it, though, the same week I made it....Sex is something I just don't understand."" (found in article but comes from the book)
- "He is enraged at the thought that Stradlater may have "made time" with Jane Gallagher. His rage springs partly from the fact that he regards Jane as his own property, partly from his suspicion that Stradlater is a heel; yet there are further implications in this episode that he most deeply resents Stradlater's apparent self-possession in an area where he himself is ill-at-ease."
III. PhoninessPlease post (or link to) a word document containing the outline of your main body (everything but your intro and conclusion) here:
(5 points)
February 13 — first draft of main body
Write a draft of the body of your paper for peer review.
English Paper
Natasha Valor
English 10
Mrs. Jacobson
March 5, 2008
Holden the Catcher
Who is Holden? A teenaged boy who is just crazy or is he a boy just trying to have fun? Some of Holden’s ideas and actions make him seem insane to most people in society but to some people his ideas and actions make him sane. Some of his ideas are just crazy but some of them could help society in many ways. They could help corruption end in the future of the children. Holden Caulfield, in the novel The Catcher and the Rye by: J.D. Salinger, is a smart young man who is in-between sanity and insanity and goes against society, which is why people think he is insane. He thinks differently then society about children’s innocence, what is phoniness and what isn't phony, and sex, which makes him, insane but sane at the same time.
The first thing that Holden cares a lot about is phoniness. He thinks almost everyone is phony. Even through he thinks almost everyone is phony he is one of the phoniest people out of all of them. Even Peter J. Seng agrees with this statement, "What disturbs Holden about the world in which he finds himself are adults and adult values. He sees that the world belongs to adults, and it seems to him that they have filled it with phoniness, pretense, and social compromise. He would prefer a world that is honest, sincere, and simple." (Page 204) The reason he has no real friends is because he thinks they are all phony. Basically Holden thinks all teenagers and adults are phony. The only people that he sees as a pure non-phony person are children. Since children are the only ones he sees as not being phony, he wants to protect their innocence.
Children’s innocence is the second thing that Holden cares about. To him there is nothing more important than the innocence of a child. Holden wants a certain world that only kids live in. Peter J. Seng defines Holden’s dream, "The world he wants is a world of children or children-surrogates like the nuns. He would people it with little girls whose skates need tightening, little girls like his adored sister Phoebe; with little boys like the ones at the Museum of Natural History, filled with exquisite terror at the prospect of seeing the mummies. It would include small boys with poems on their baseball gloves like his brother Allie who died some years ago from leukemia and so has been arrested in permanent youth by death. The chief citizens of Holden's world would be the little boys who walk along the curbstone and sing." (Page 204) The world Holden sees is not a bad one. Most adults in society would think it was an insane thought, a world of children. But Holden’s dream is not insane at all. If the world lived pure lives like children we wouldn’t have as much problems in the world. There would be no wars, starvation, murders and many other things. When Holden thinks about what job he would like to do in the future. He sees himself being the “Catcher in the Rye”. James E. Miller, Jr. says, "His quest is a quest to preserve an innocence that is in peril of vanishing—the innocence of childhood, the spotless innocence of a self horrified at contamination in the ordinary and inevitable involvements of life. In another sense, the quest is a quest for an ideal but un-human love that will meet all demands but make none; a relationship so sensitively attuned that all means of communication, however subtle, will remain alertly open, and all the messages, in whatever language, will get through." (Page 6) The job "Catcher in the Rye" that Holden sees himself doing can be seen in many different ways. "He wants to be good. When the title children are playing in the rye-field on the cliff top, Holden wants to be the one who catches them before they fall off the cliff."(Page 129) This is what Arthur Heiserman thinks about Holden’s dream job. But, to me it is that Holden sees himself as the person who saves children’s innocence and saving them from going into the corrupt world of adults. He loves children and wants to be a child again that is another reason he wants to protect their innocence.
The third and final thing that Holden cares and thinks about is sex. Holden doesn’t think of sex the same way most people do. He sees it as a spiritual and physical experience just like Luce's girlfriend thinks it is. He doesn’t feel right about doing it with just anyone. He feels that if he does have sex it should be with someone he truly cares about. When Holden thinks that Stradlater might have done it with Jane Gallagher he gets angry. Peter J. Seng explains further, "He is enraged at the thought that Stradlater may have "made time" with Jane Gallagher. His rage springs partly from the fact that he regards Jane as his own property, partly from his suspicion that Stradlater is a heel; yet there are further implications in this episode that he most deeply resents Stradlater's apparent self-possession in an area where he himself is ill-at-ease."(Page 204) It is Jane's own choice to be with Stradlater and Holden can be angry about it but he shouldn't act like Jane is his own property. People think differently about sex than Holden and he can't change that. He has his own beliefs and should keep them. Holden says himself that he thinks sex differently than most. "Sex is something I really don't understand too hot. You never know where the hell you are. I keep making up these sex rules for myself, and then I break them right away. Last year I made a rule that I was going to quit horsing around with girls that, deep down, gave me a pain in the ass. I broke it, though; the same week I made it.... Sex is something I just don't understand." (Catcher In the Rye By: J. D. Salinger) Holden might think sex differently but the way he thinks about it fine. Most people (men mostly some women) would look at Holden as if he had two heads. But it is a great to think of it this way. If the world saw sex this way life would be a little bit easier. Teenagers wouldn't be pressured into doing it and women's life would be easier to live.
Holden's sanity is on a thin line between being insane and being sane. “He hates lies, phoniness, pretense, yet these are often his own sins." (Seng page 203) His ideas are great but completely out there. Some are just plain stupid and wouldn’t help anyone. He might daydream about things but everyone does that it is part of being creative. People can think Holden is insane but he truly isn’t completely. Holden will always be a different kind of teenage boy.
(10 points)
February 14 — peer review
List the names of at least three of your classmates whose first drafts you read and commented upon:
(5 points)
1) Ellen Kuhl
2) Joy Mayfield
3) Theresa Tran
February 25 — final rough draft
Submit a paper copy of your final draft of the body to the teacher.
(20 points)
February 26 — rough draft of conclusion paragraph
Holden's sanity is on a thin line between being insane and being sane.
Please type (or link to) the rough draft of your conclusion paragraph here:
(5 points)
February 27 — final draft of conclusion paragraph
Revise your conclusion paragraph and present a copy to your teacher today.
Also, please type (or link to) the rough draft of your conclusion paragraph here:
(10 points)
February 28 — Works Cited Page due
Work CitedHeiserman, Arthur, and James E. Miller, Jr. "J. D. Salinger: Some Crazy Cliff." EXPLORING Novels. Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resource Center - Bronze. Gale. North Penn High School. 28 Feb. 2008 <http://find.galegroup.com
Miller, James E., Jr. "J. D. Salinger." EXPLORING Novels. Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resource Center - Bronze. Gale. North Penn High School. 28 Feb. 2008 <http://find.galegroup.com
Seng, Peter J. "The Fallen Idol: The Immature World of Holden Caulfield." EXPLORING Novels. Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resource Center - Bronze. Gale. North Penn High School. 28 Feb. 2008 <http://find.galegroup.com
Turn in a paper copy of your works cited page to your teacher today!
Link to the Word document of your works cited page here:
(20 points)
March 5 — CRITICAL PAPER DUE!!!
Turn in the final draft of critical paper TODAY, including:
a) note cards
b) outline of body
c) all rough drafts
d) completed checklist, signed
e) final draft of paper, typed, double spaced (5-7 pgs.)
f) final works cited / references page
(100 points)
March 9 — TURN IT IN (dot com)
Today is the final day for MANDATORY submission of your final critical paper to www.turnitin.com
FAILURE TO SUBMIT YOUR PAPER TO TURNITIN.COM WILL RESULT IN A ZERO ON YOUR PAPER!
Hooray!! You're done!
Now let's have some fun making our Julius Caesar movie!